[7]

Robert DeNiro stars a mobster who builds a gambling empire in Las Vegas only to see it threatened by relationships with his best friend, played by Joe Pesci, and his loose canon wife, played by Sharon Stone. Martin Scorsese directs and co-wrote the screenplay with novelist Nicholas Pileggi. Casino is the sort of movie that is a little bit interesting to me for it’s recreation of a world I know nothing about and never plan to live in. I’ve never even been to Las Vegas or a casino anywhere, and I don’t ever care to. If the three leads were played by any lesser talents, I don’t know if I could have made it through the movie — I mean, these characters deserve everything that happens to them, right? They aren’t balanced with redeeming values, like the characters in Heat, for example. I just have a hard time identifying or empathizing with people who so willfully sew the seeds of their own demises. My engagement with the movie came primarily with not knowing the full extent of the downward spiral. Who will live, who will die, what will be left of them. Scorsese, man. He sure loves to tell stories about sad, bad, dirty people. With James Woods, Don Rickles, and Alan King.

Oscar Nomination: Best Actress (Sharon Stone)